In Bucharest (Romania), grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa failed to become joint leader of the Superbet Classic chess tournament after settling for a draw against his compatriot D Gukesh in the third round here.
After losing to Gukesh in the last Candidates tournament in April earlier this year, Praggnanandhaa had a great chance to even the score this year but could not find a winning follow-up after Gukesh ruined a tied finish.
In the Catalan opening, Gukesh sacrificed an early pawn and Praggnanandhaa had his share of counterplay on the queen side. As things developed, Gukesh regained the pawn with an optical advantage with his knight against a slightly bad Praggnanandhaa bishop.
With the complexities of the middlegame over, Gukesh decided to give up a pawn and reached a queen and rook ending that should have been an easy draw, but an error on his 53rd move caused a forced liquidation that led to a king ending. and pawns.
On another day, Praggnanandhaa could have found the winning continuation to become joint leader, but luck smiled on Gukesh and the game ended in a tie a few moves later.
For the first time in three days, all five matches of the ten-player double round-robin tournament ended in draws. The other player who came close to victory was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who almost did it against his French teammate Alireza Firouzja.
It was a Berlin defense game in which Firouzja won the opening battle for the third day in a row, easily achieving a balanced position with Black.
However, a late error in the queenless middlegame saw Vachier-Lagrave take the initiative and it should have been a victory that slipped through the older Frenchman's hands.
As all games ended in draws, the leading positions remained unchanged and Gukesh continued to top the charts along with Fabiano Caruana of the United States, who drew a closely contested game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.
With both leaders on two points, Vachier-Lagrave, Praggnaandhaa, Alireza, Wesley So, Giri and Nepomniachtchi share third place with 1.5 points each.
Another half point behind are Abdusattorov and Bogdan Daniel, with six rounds still left in the tournament with prize money of $350,000.
Dutchman Anish Giri played an easy draw on his 30th birthday against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and both players gave nothing away and this was also the first game that ended the day.
Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania played his second draw of the tournament by holding on to a slightly worse finish for more than a couple of hours against Wesley So of the United States.
Round 3 results:
D Gukesh (Ind, 2) tied with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5) tied with Firouza Alireza (Fra, 1.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 1.5) tied with Ian Nepomniachtchi (FID, 1.5); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 1) tied with Fabiano Caruana (United States, 2); Wesley So (USA, 1.5) tied with Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rom, 1).
IN
After losing to Gukesh in the last Candidates tournament in April earlier this year, Praggnanandhaa had a great chance to even the score this year but could not find a winning follow-up after Gukesh ruined a tied finish.
In the Catalan opening, Gukesh sacrificed an early pawn and Praggnanandhaa had his share of counterplay on the queen side. As things developed, Gukesh regained the pawn with an optical advantage with his knight against a slightly bad Praggnanandhaa bishop.
With the complexities of the middlegame over, Gukesh decided to give up a pawn and reached a queen and rook ending that should have been an easy draw, but an error on his 53rd move caused a forced liquidation that led to a king ending. and pawns.
On another day, Praggnanandhaa could have found the winning continuation to become joint leader, but luck smiled on Gukesh and the game ended in a tie a few moves later.
For the first time in three days, all five matches of the ten-player double round-robin tournament ended in draws. The other player who came close to victory was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who almost did it against his French teammate Alireza Firouzja.
It was a Berlin defense game in which Firouzja won the opening battle for the third day in a row, easily achieving a balanced position with Black.
However, a late error in the queenless middlegame saw Vachier-Lagrave take the initiative and it should have been a victory that slipped through the older Frenchman's hands.
As all games ended in draws, the leading positions remained unchanged and Gukesh continued to top the charts along with Fabiano Caruana of the United States, who drew a closely contested game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.
With both leaders on two points, Vachier-Lagrave, Praggnaandhaa, Alireza, Wesley So, Giri and Nepomniachtchi share third place with 1.5 points each.
Another half point behind are Abdusattorov and Bogdan Daniel, with six rounds still left in the tournament with prize money of $350,000.
Dutchman Anish Giri played an easy draw on his 30th birthday against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and both players gave nothing away and this was also the first game that ended the day.
Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania played his second draw of the tournament by holding on to a slightly worse finish for more than a couple of hours against Wesley So of the United States.
Round 3 results:
D Gukesh (Ind, 2) tied with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5) tied with Firouza Alireza (Fra, 1.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 1.5) tied with Ian Nepomniachtchi (FID, 1.5); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 1) tied with Fabiano Caruana (United States, 2); Wesley So (USA, 1.5) tied with Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rom, 1).
IN
